By Todd Bradley, DCSportsFan.com
MaxPreps.com
For the 17 seniors on Bishop O'Connell's (Arlington, Va.) roster, Sunday's victory over Gonzaga College High School (Washington, D.C.) was a long time in the making.
The Knight's had only won five games over the past two seasons and suffered two blowout losses at the hands of the Eagles. Sunday, however, was a completely different story. O'Connell defeated Gonzaga 40-0 as the Knights improved to 4-0 on the season and 1-0 in conference play. For Bishop O'Connell head coach Steve Trimble, it was the first time he beat Gonzaga.
"We're trying to establish ourselves as a good football team," Trimble said. “[Our players] worked hard to get it. It's not like it happened overnight. They took their lumps in the conference when they were sophomores, so they've worked hard the last couple of years."
O'Connell scored twice in the first quarter to set the tone early. Junior running back Greg Gadell carried the ball in for the Knights' first touchdown, and senior quarterback Patrick Thompson hit fellow senior Brian Williams on touchdown pass to put O'Connell up 14-0.
"Brian Williams is our chief receiver," Trimble said. "He's a threat out there, especially when he's being covered one-on-one. We run to set up the pass and we get some big plays out of it."
O'Connell, which uses a double-wing offense, didn't throw very often Sunday because the Knights had so much success running the ball. Whether it was Greg Gadell, Patrick Simms, Justin Trimble or Joshua Trimble, Gonzaga's defense couldn't prevent O'Connell's offense from moving the ball. After the touchdown pass to Williams, the Trimble brothers combined for three touchdowns while Simms scored once on the ground as well.
"We can switch out our backs and still get production," Justin Trimble said. "It makes it hard for other teams to read us. We have three or four backs that can get the job done. Today was a big deal for us because we haven't beaten their varsity team in 10 years."
Gonzaga, for the most part, relied on the running game as well. Senior Alan Elder was able to pick up yardage, but O'Connell's defense would always step up and force the Eagles to punt. Brian Williams, Josh Trimble and Carl Katz were relentless on the defensive side of the ball, and Beau Fitzpatrick was able to block a punt deep in Gonzaga territory to set up a touchdown.
"Beau has been hurt most of the week," coach Trimble said, "but we were very pleased he was able to play and make some plays for us."
O'Connell will not have much time to celebrate. Sunday's game was originally scheduled for Saturday, but poor weather conditions pushed the game back a day. The Knights will welcome a tough St. John's (3-1, 1-0) team this Saturday before traveling to Good Counsel (4-0, 1-0) the following weekend. Gonzaga (0-4, 0-1) will host Carroll (1-3, 0-1) in an attempt to pick up their first win of the season.